The Great Distraction
by suspensegirlinc
Summary: based off future CBDS spoilers/speculations - The possibility that Blair was still in love with Chuck completely blindsided him. CB DB DS ref o/s


A/N: This is another pathetic attempt at a DBC fic where Blair leaves Dan for Chuck (around the S5 finale). I fail at these epically because I just don't see how DB can function as a couple. I might as well be writing a couple I made up myself. Even if I somehow manage to successfully explain in narrative how they came to have feelings for one another and act on it, the dialogue between them betrays whatever skill I thought I had in the matter. With all this threat of DB looming in the air, I feel the need more than ever to write the death of them to make myself feel better, but in bringing CB back together post-DB, I have to make DB break up & for that I need them to speak in romance-angst dialect and that seems nearly impossible for me. Maybe it will be easier for me to write them once I actually see them onscreen and how the writers write them, but for now, they are meager and messy on my somewhat cluttered pages. Forgive me. I tried my best.

*This is based on spoilers/speculations seen from set pics of DB running off and CS tracking them down. I just had it take place in the season finale, instead of around 5x13 when it presumably may take place.

*I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.

….

"Don't do it."

She looked into his pleading, desperate eyes and knew she couldn't. Turning her gaze back to Dan's own curious, pleading eyes she wanted to know why it had been her fate had chosen to make a mess of her love life. She had thought Nate would be it, and now she had become the central focus of the two men in her life she would have never deemed worthy of her affections.

Her feelings for Dan had started out slow, but then a moment of clarity had come and she'd decided that if she couldn't have Chuck, he was the next best thing. Marriage so soon after denying herself to her only great love had been a disaster from the start. When she divorced Louis just a few short weeks after their royal wedding, she knew she could never try again with him in the future. The reality of being the princess of Monaco had shockingly become too much for her. Fairytales were fairytales for a reason. The sweetness and beauty was pulled out for young girls to dream about. The complications were not, and you were lucky to escape them if you got caught up in that world.

But now she had to choose. Nearly everyone had been against her union with Dan. She didn't blame them. The Blair from even a few months prior would have been yelling at her and throwing objects for possibly having gotten involved with such a "lowly individual" who should be lucky that she let him grace her with his presence. Serena was unbelievably wounded by it, and there was no point even trying to fix that situation. Her best friend meant more to her than anyone, other than Chuck, which she realized was another reason she couldn't stick around.

She and Dan were going to run away together, to see if they could last without the pressure of hurting everyone around them. Of course, if they didn't work out and they came back, it would be hard to win back people's trust, their love and affection. Almost impossible probably. It was such a risk they were taking, but in a way it was very romantic. There was a thrill that always zipped through her whenever she thought of it. She was her very own heroine, running away with her lover.

She should've known Chuck would stop her. A royal wedding to the Prince of Monaco hadn't stopped him from fighting for her every inch of the way. Dating Dan hadn't stopped him. Every second of every day since he came out of his coma from that dreadful car accident, it seemed he was fighting for her constantly. Nothing else mattered but her and it completely broke her apart. It wasn't until she realized Dan had caught her eye that she found that tiny bit of happiness that completely dissolved the night of the car accident.

Dan saved her in more ways than one. He changed her, made her see things in a different perspective, and he brought her out of the darkness. Now though, standing in front of Chuck, it was clear to her that the darkness had been something she'd created all by herself, and that by ignoring her insistence on staying away from Chuck, even when she believed she didn't have to anymore, she was allowing Dan to always be her second choice in the man she chose. Even as she planned to run away with him, she thought of how much more thrilling it would be for her to elope with Chuck when no one was looking.

"Please don't go," he begged her.

She blinked tears. _Real_ tears. She hadn't shed any of those since before the great distraction that was her romantic relationship with Dan. She was unbelievably torn again, but this time it was completely different, and mostly what she was feeling with Dan was guilt.

Blair turned back to Dan, trying to hold the tears at bay as she released Chuck's hands and guided her current boyfriend away. He looked at her questioningly, not saying a word. Serena loomed like a crow in the background, watching the entire scene.

"Dan, I'm sorry."

"_What_?"

The possibility that Blair was still in love with Chuck completely blindsided him. He had finally captured Blair Waldorf's heart, and while it might not last forever, he thought making it out of town, away from temptation and judgment of others would give them more room to breathe in their relationship.

"Blair, don't let him get to you. You'll never be able to really give us a chance if you keep listening to the lies he's telling you."

Her brows furrowed.

"What lies?"

"That you still love him? That you want to be with him?" He scoffed. "You're with me now, remember? Can we please just _try_ to make this work?"

She wanted to get angry at him, but all his arguments were ones she'd agreed with prior to this encounter with Chuck and Serena, so she knew she couldn't spout too much venom. It'd be very hypocritical of her, and she was done with being that person.

She cleared her throat and swallowed, preparing herself.

"Hear me out."

His eyes widened. "Oh my god…"

"_Dan_." She gripped his arm tightly. "_Please_."

"He really has gotten to you. You really believe—"

"_Dan_," she snapped, irritated now. "Will you just _shut up_ and listen?"

His mouth shut instantly and her eyes softened.

"I never stopped loving him."

Dan's expression just about killed her.

"I developed feelings for you and I let you be my world because I couldn't face the miserable situation that was my love life. I needed you because you were the only lifeline I felt could really understand, mostly because you were in love with me—"

"—_am_ in love with you."

She sighed.

"Dan, if you stay with me, you're always going to be second choice. Chuck is my first great love. I love him more than I've ever loved anybody, Serena included. I thought I was saving his life by not being with him, but being with you doesn't solve anything either. You and I could have our run, and it could be great, but at the end I will still break it off because it will only prove to me how much I'm supposed to be with Chuck, no matter what the cost."

His eyebrows narrowed angrily. "Are you saying I'm not good enough for you?"

She shook her head. "No. I'm saying we're not meant for each other."

His face fell again as he looked at her, and then stiffened when Blair turned her head over her shoulder to glance at Serena.

"Now, her? The beautiful blonde over there? She has left every one of her boyfriends for you. You were her first love and she was yours. Out of all the guys she could have had in an instant, she chose you, and for her, you'll always be number one."

"Blair…"

"You might really love me, Dan, but the way you loved Serena? You know that was different, and you know that was way more real and life-changing than anything you and I could have."

"That's not true. When I fell in love with you, most if not all of my judgment for the Upper East Side started to fall away. I became a different person."

She nodded sadly. "And in doing that you lost sight of the person who let you into that world with open arms and a willing heart. Don't hurt her like this."

She let go of his hands and took a step back, releasing a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. "I'm not in love with you, Dan. Maybe I could've been, but I'm not now. I am in love with Chuck though, and that will never change. Us being together isn't fair to you and not to me either because I'm just lying to myself if I think settling is the best route to go for true happiness."

"_Settling_?" He was disgusted by the word, and the obvious implications it held.

"I'm sorry, Dan." She turned and walked away.

After she'd gone, Dan glanced up at Serena who was eyeing him coldly. He still loved Blair, though the guilt trip from her hit him hard now and he suddenly felt all the hurt Serena must have felt throughout the year when he'd professed his love for Blair or turned a cold shoulder to her because he'd been so consumed in his feelings for the brunette.

He watched Serena walk towards the car and out of the corner of his eye, Chuck and Blair moved in another direction as well.

Chuck waited with baited breath to hear what she would say. He thought she'd just ended things with Dan, but he couldn't be certain and he'd been dying every day since he'd heard they'd gotten together. Of all the things he sought to do and to avoid in order to have Blair again, he never considered Dan as a threat in all his desperate plan-making. His naivety cost him a lot, but once the facts were laid out before him, he became even more aware of the possibilities than ever before.

"I'm not going," she said, a tiny smile playing on her lips.

He still couldn't breathe.

She grasped his hands and rubbed her fingers against his cold skin.

"Chuck, I'm not going. I'm staying right here _with you_." She brought her hands up to cup his face. "I love you." His desperate eyes still remained in their focused gaze on her face. "Dan and I are over."

Finally, he breathed.

Before he said another word though, he dug around in his pocket, got down on one knee and opened the velvet box before her.

"I love you, Blair. Please marry me."

She gasped, telling herself to keep breathing. She hadn't been expecting this, and she wondered then how long he'd been carrying it around in his pocket and when he'd gone to retrieve the identical one back into his possession.

Her eyes watered with tears of joy though. She bit her lip excitedly and nodded.

"Yes."

He rose to his feet, smiling like an idiot and kissed her hard and fast, pulling her as tight to him as he could manage.

"I'm never, ever letting you go again. Please, please don't leave me, Blair. And please mean it," he choked out a laugh.

"I won't. I won't. I promise."

She pulled away from his multiple kisses and demanded he slip the ring on her finger. She thought for a moment that maybe she was acting too rash, accepting a proposal after she'd just broken off her two-month relationship with Dan. But the next heartbeat told her not. She'd been waiting for this moment all of her life. Ever since that night just before Jenny, she'd been longing to hear him finish his proposal to her.

"I love you, Blair. No one else. You're it for me. You're everything to me. If you leave me again…I'll die."

He believed every word he said, she realized, and that gave her the facts she'd denied herself ever since she made that ridiculous pact. Keeping herself from Chuck hadn't saved his life. Believing she was out there waiting for him did. She would never make such a misconception again.

"I'm not leaving you, Chuck." She soothed, stroking the side of his face with one hand and running her fingers through his hair with the other. She leaned her forehead against his. "I'm sorry I stayed away so long." She bit her lip, remember their conversation six months earlier, and then softly giggled. "I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you," she whispered.

His smile was unbelievably contagious as he spun her in a circle and dipped her down backwards to kiss her where she stood. She gasped and her eyes glowed with all the love in her heart towards him. There was no thought of Dan in her mind now. Only Chuck. That's how it'd been ever since they'd embarked on this great journey four years earlier.

"You're my soul mate," he told her and she smiled because he'd taken the words right out of her mouth. So, she just nodded and then and leaned in for his kiss.

"And you're mine," she whispered, delicious ripples of joy escalading through her, a hundred times more powerful than the ones that trickled through her at the thought of running away with Dan.

"I love you so much," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and ducking her head into the curve. Chuck held her close, afraid if he loosened his grip at all, he'd somehow lose her again.

"Your love for me…" He pulled back. "It consumes me."

And she knew then, as if it hadn't already been obvious to her every moment before, that this was who she was meant for and the decision that had needed to be done for all of her life.

"Mrs. Blair Bass," she smiled. "I _love_ the sound of that."

His grin stretched wide again, and he kissed her.

….

A/N: This is def a total and complete failure, but thank-you for humoring me in reading it all the way through. If you have no insults to spew at me, I would like to hear your thoughts.


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